“I haven’t enough time.” My spade struck deeper into the earth. “I must stop the prince before he hurts anyone else.”
“Jie!”
“Go home, Lilan.”
If she gave a retort, I didn’t hear it. I blocked out every sound, save for the thump of the shovel against earth. I plunged the blade into the ground over and over and over, mud splattering my arms and legs like blood, until the spade knocked against something hard. As I dug with my fingers, I recognized the shape of a human skull. Pieces of dried brown skin still clung to the bone.
The sight should’ve disgusted me, but I was past something so trivial.
Smiling grimly, I swept away enough dirt to expose most of the body. Then I drew a reanimation talisman from my pocket and set it on the skull’s forehead. I’d left my staff on the ground while shoveling, but I reached for it now to perform the ritual. My thumb brushed against the character engraved in the wood by my father—Kang. For just a moment, I hesitated, Lilan’s words ricocheting in my mind. Was she right about Baba’s wishes?
No.I’d already come this far.
I shoved aside my doubts and continued with the spell. Shaking the iron bells, I commanded, “Rise.”
The skeleton crawled out of its grave, following my order as obediently as my usual corpses. It still gripped a hatchet in its hand, the only companion from its previous—pitiful—life. But I’d give the skeleton purpose in death.
It’d take too much time to unbury each body one by one, so I pointed to the field and said, “Dig.”
For the next hour, I worked alongside the skeletons I reanimated, each finding another comrade to add to my growing army. I felt like a corpse myself, covered in mud and decay. As the number of reanimated dead increased, the thinner my energy stretched. This was far beyond what I’d attempted at Jing Mansion. But my determination never waned, fueled by a fury that only grew with every skeleton I unearthed.
Liqin had hurt so many people—these men, my father, Ren, and countless others. However grotesque my methods, the eldest prince deserved to be executed by what appeared to be hell itself. And I’d be the executioner leading it.
When every skeleton in the field had broken free of its grave, I stabbed my shovel into the earth and surveyed my army. There were at least fifty before me, maybe more. Each stood with a yellow Fu talisman covering their eyeless face. Sinew and bits of flesh knitted their bones in between their moldy, torn clothes. Maggots nested in the pockets of rot. Many of the soldiers wielded daggers and swords, weapons of self-defense that’d been buried alongside them, a cruel replacement for the family they’d left behind.
I clenched my staff and leaned into it. I wasn’t sure if the fatigue was a result of my shoveling or my qi being used to concentrate on the skeletons under my control. But I couldn’t rest now.
Not when I’d just begun.
I pivoted toward the main road, lantern swinging from my other hand. As my army and I marched away from the field, a lone figure picked herself off the grass at the meadow’s fringe.
“Lilan,” I said, eyes narrowed as I recognized my sister. I’d thought she’d left long ago.
“Jie.” Lilan met me halfway. Her eyes flitted, repulsed, over the skeletons, then cut back to mine. “I’m begging you one last time. Please don’t do this. You can still change your mind and come home with me. It isn’t too late.”
I gave her a rueful smile. “You’re wrong, mei. It’s already too late.”
Calmly, I stepped around her and continued up the incline to the road, my deathly host following closely behind.
Prince Liqin was likely reclining in a luxurious palanquin right then, believing he’d won the world. But I would prove him wrong. I’d meet him in the capital with the men he’d murdered.
And then I’d kill him myself.
CHAPTER 25
It took just over two days for me and my army to arrive at the capital. I rarely stopped for food or rest, sustained only by cold, numbing hate. I didn’t care who saw me either. Farmers dropped their tools and ran at the sight of the rot-brown skeletons. Villagers shrieked and dashed inside their homes. Fellow travelers scurried off the roads, tripping over rocks and underbrush to scramble away. I ignored them all.
We arrived at the gates of Hulin just as dawn peeked over the mountain range. The horizon line simmered red, as if anticipating a day of blood. I could already taste the iron on my tongue.
The city guards failed to notice my approaching army until we’d reached the entrance. When they glimpsed the grinning skulls behind me, the unit tasked with inspecting visitors stumbled over themselves. There was no time for them to shut the gates.
I shook my iron bells and commanded my army to retaliate against anyone who dared attack. And most of the guardsdid—those patrolling the parapets of the city’s high walls and the ones guarding the main entrance. They fired arrows and threw daggers, but their aim was halfhearted. The moment they allowed their fear to overtake them, they’d already lost.
I hardly glanced at the guards or the undead soldiers, continuing toward my target. Terrified shouts and whistling blades filled the air, but I didn’t flinch. The skeletons nearest me easily deflected any stray missiles, their rib cages and bones bearing arrows that drew no pain. If a skeleton fell, it quickly picked itself back up and resumed its march.
Perhaps, as Lilan had said, I should’ve felt guilty for using the dead in such a manner. But I no longer cared what was proper or not. The eldest prince had taken everything I loved. I’d willingly sell my own soul to make him pay the price.
The city of Hulin woke to a grisly sight that morning. I felt the waves of horror ripple over me from cowering passersby as I made my way through the varying districts to the palace carved into the side of Mount Long. I’d never visited the capital before, and in a different time, I would’ve admired the towering buildings, the eateries steeped in history and charm, the diverse fashions, and the overlapping smells of food, smoke, and sweat.
